Labor Day Weekend

"Labor" is a good descriptor for most of the past weekend. In the interests of keeping whining to a minimum, I'll touch on the non-studying aspects of the long weekend.

During a study/lunch break, I saw that Michigan was losing to none other than the DI-AA champs of Appalachian State. Only reason I know that is because SIU has been fielding some decent I-AA teams of its own. Anyway, I didn't think the game would actually end like that. The Michigan alums in our class weren't too pleased. And actually, at a Michigan bar that I went to Saturday night, there weren't too many blue and yellows out and about. More on that later.

Between studying and going out Saturday, I was back at my place for a bit. Long enough for me to catch the tail end of the Illinois game. That McGee kid didn't do too bad for his first game. I only saw the two picks, so I can't really comment on his turnovers. But, I thought he did a decent job, especially leading the comeback. Well, until he threw the pick. And I didn't see Juice play, but I thought McGee was a better passer than I remember Juice being. Better in that he makes better decisions and throws.

I mentioned that I went out to some bar Saturday night. One of my friends is a USC fan. In continuing his and his friends' tradition from last year, they wanted to head out to this bar in Lincoln Park that's known as a USC and Michigan hangout. Like I said, the place was *devoid* of any blue and gold. Kinda funny, IMO. As for the game we watched, USC won - but that's kinda expected against Idaho. There was a sweet play where one of USC's receivers had a pretty nice one handed TD grab. Almost as nice as the Oronde Gadsen catch over the middle from a few years ago. I know, Oronde who? Took me a second to remember his name also. As for the bar itself: decent place to hang out. You can look it up (Mad River) here. My burger was okay at best. Although, the nacho plate we got was ginormous. We couldn't finish it. The place has a sports bar theme going on earlier in the night, and it gradually shifts over to a real bar later. And by "shift over" I mean they start taking the chairs and tables. That we're sitting on. Ah well, at least they played some good music. AKA, some stuff from the 90s and not all techno or rap. Final note: don't open a tab. Shit adds up faster than I would've liked.

Monday night, a few of us were coming back from the library and decided to eat. There's an area near my place with a decent number of restaurants, bars, and small shops. One of these is a Mediterranean restaurant. After having it for the first time, I'd have to say that I like Mediterranean food. Or at least, food from the one place. Had some couscous and falafel. Kind of a mainstream dish, but I might as well start out with that. Good stuff. The couscous was spicy. Not in a really hot, buffalo wing type of way. But spicy so that I noticed it and it gave the food some flavor. That combined with the fact that it was lamb couscous made for a good meal. I've always been a fan of lamb. We were originally going to eat at an Indian restaurant, but they were closed. Guess my first Indian food will have to wait until next time.